Beckham able to savour his century but tame England are banished to brood

Wednesday 26 March 2008 20.42 EDT
First published on Wednesday 26 March 2008 20.42 EDT

"England till I die," sang the visiting support as the night wore on. Fabio Capello will be glad to hear it because this was the sort of friendly that would have provoked lesser men to mass desertion. As it was, quite a few of those fans did steal away before full-time but no one should scold them for that piece of good sense. David Beckham's 100th appearance is about as much as they will ever remember willingly of this night.

The losers do have specific, professional reasons to brood on it. Barring a brief spell in the middle of the first half the side were tame in defeat. The victors held a near-monopoly on excitement, especially when Nicolas Anelka was in possession. He alarmed his Chelsea team-mate John Terry during the 45 minutes in which they both shared the field before the removal of the defender.

The centre-back had given repeated cause for concern and was gravely at fault when Anelka secured the penalty from which Franck Ribéry notched the single goal. The search for excuses was futile and the organisers had even laid a new pitch to thwart efforts to pin the blame on a bad surface. There is no escaping the realisation that Capello has established a galling continuity with his immediate predecessors Steve McClaren and Sven...#8209;Goran Eriksson by associating himself with a stultifying friendly.

Beckham, substituted in the 64th minute, was back on the field at the end to savour the occasion. No one else in England can have been in that mood but there may have been practical elements to his happiness. His replacement David Bentley did nothing to demonstrate that Beckham should immediately be cast back into the darkness.

If the 32-year-old is retained, it will illustrate why Capello cannot make an instant escape from all that has gone before. Of the XI sent out here, only David James, Wes Brown and Gareth Barry had not started the 2006 World Cup quarter-final against Portugal. There is an annoying constant in the shallowness of the pool in which England must fish for players.

Capello should be consoled by even modest pieces of encouragement and he saw Stewart Downing brighten the fixture slightly after coming off the bench. Despite the winger's endeavours there was no panache to the attacking from England, who did not have a single attempt on target. The France captain, Lilian Thuram, in central defence, would have seen no reason why he should not get another 12 caps to reach the 150 mark.

England went through two different formations. In the first half the side was set out in a 4-2-3-1 system. Steven Gerrard, in the middle of the trio stationed behind Wayne Rooney, did misuse his side's best opportunity of the night by heading high from a Brown delivery in the 21st minute. Nonetheless he and Rooney did not link reliably and it is still to be proved that the Manchester United player can be a lone striker for his country.

Other questions that came to mind arose from the better parts of France's display. Why, for instance, is Florent Malouda not as effective for Chelsea? It could be asked, too, just how Bayern Munich pulled off the coup of signing Ribéry when Italy, Spain and England are now the countries where the finest footballers are supposed to become multi-millionaires?

Capello saw weaknesses in his defence well before the penalty. He would have scowled as early as the eighth minute when Anelka was barely distracted by opponents before nodding wide from Ribéry's free-kick.

These sides had not met since the Euro 2004 group fixture, when England were 1-0 ahead before two Zinédine Zidane goals. The first of those was a 90th-minute penalty and last night's successor bore a resemblance to it. Anelka easily eluded Terry to take François Clerc's pass in the inside-right channel and James, who had conceded the goals four years ago, again felled an advancing France player. Ribéry sent him the wrong way from the spot.

There was an attempt by Capello to recast the contest and those implicated in England's second-half toils were thrown the intended comfort blanket of the 4...#8209;4...#8209;2 formation. Michael Owen, succeeding Rooney, and Peter Crouch, on for Gerrard, were the partnership in attack while Downing went to the left in place of Joe Cole. Although Owen was busy enough, the visitors were not galvanised.

This game was Rio Ferdinand's chance to audition for the part of captain. He did have a better match than his fellow centre-half Terry, even if Anelka twisted to make space against him before shooting slightly high in the 50th minute. Ferdinand must pray that Capello will be willing to excuse him for failing to rouse his team-mates since that might have been beyond anyone's capacity for leadership last night.

The game disintegrated as France, lacking a few regulars, realised they had done quite enough to show they will be a force at a Euro 2008 tournament that will not pine for England. Capello would never have gained his renown without a profound gift for analysing football matches but his eye will need to have been keener than ever to spot encouragement in Paris.